1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to user authentication systems over data network systems and, more particularly, relates to a method and system for self-provisioning, through a first device, a rendezvous to ensure secure access to managed information in a user account by other devices through the rendezvous in a data network, wherein the rendezvous is generally identified by a URL, the first device, coupled to the data network, runs a first browser under a first communication protocol and the other devices in the same data network run a second browser under a second communication protocol.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Internet is a rapidly growing communication network of interconnected computers around the world. Together, these millions of connected computers form a vast repository of hyperlinked information that is readily accessible by any of the connected computers from anywhere and anytime. To provide mobility and portability of the Internet, wireless computing devices were introduced and are capable of communicating, via wireless data networks, with the computers on the Internet. With the wireless data networks, people, as they travel or move about, are able to perform through the wireless computing devices exactly the same tasks they could do with computers on the Internet.
The most common remote access paradigm is, as of today, the one in which a laptop personal computer is equipped with a wireless communication mechanism, for example, a wireless modem. This paradigm may remain useful for a considerable number of applications and users, but there has been a growing need for a mobile paradigm in which the Internet can be instantly accessed by mobile devices, such as cellular phones and personal digital assistants. The mobile devices are generally designed small in size and light in weight. With increasing data processing capabilities in the mobile devices, more and more users start carrying the devices around to materialize their unproductive time into productive time. As more commonly seen, regular mobile phones can return calls, check voice mail or make users thereof available for teleconferences anywhere and anytime, but desired mobile phones, not just reactive to calls but also proactive, can meld voice, data, and personal information with manager-like functionality into a single handset that can effectively, through a host computer, access a myriad of public and enterprise information services in the Internet.
The evolution of the mobile phones or the mobile devices has been fueled by the demand of users for immediate access to the information they are looking for. For example, a traveler may request an exact flight schedule when he is on his way to the airport, or a trader may purchase shares of stock at a certain price. The pertinent information from these transactions may include the airline and the flight number for the traveler, or the number and price of the shares being purchased by the trader. To be timely informed, a preferable way is to communicate the information requests electronically into the wireless data network. The data network, for example, connects to a flight information server or stock quote server so that the desired flight information or the current stock price can be retrieved therefrom on demand. However, it becomes troublesome or impractical to key in lengthy information queries electronically into the data network through a mobile device that typically has a keypad with a few buttons, much less functional compared to a keyboard in a personal computer system. There is, therefore, a great need for a method and system for efficiently communicating desired transactions into a data network through which the transactions can be performed or pertinent information can be retrieved, without the need to key in such information every time the transactions or the information is desired. In many cases, the desired information in a user account, especially regarding personal matters, is preferred to be confidential. Thus, there is further a need for a generic solution that provides a method and means for self-provisioning an account entry to a user account that has the proprietary information therein accessible only through the account entry.